1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an appliance for treating garments.
2. Description of Prior Art
The invention relates more particularly to an appliance for treating garments with steam. Steam is traditionally used when ironing clothes and other garments including curtains and furnishing covers with a so-called "steam iron" that releases steam usually under the manual control of a user. Steamers or "steam wands" are also known to remove creases and crinkles where steam is applied typically to hanging garments and the like. In this way, curtains can for example be treated with steam in situ or after being hung up following cleaning or washing.
In the case of a steam iron, it has already been proposed to supply water to a heated iron from a separate reservoir via a flexible hose. This greatly increases the quantity of water that can be made available for steam ironing. In the case of a steamer, the water is the more usually supplied from a separate reservoir via a suitable hose. It is also known to provide the hose in the form of a cable that is designed to carry water as required and also incorporates electrical wires for supplying power and/or transmitting control signals between the steamer or the iron, as the case may be, and the separate central water reservoir. Typically, the control signals are required to initiate a pump that pumps water, on demand, to the steamer or the steam iron during use.
It has been proposed to have a flexible cable connected to a water reservoir that terminates at a plug or socket so as to provide releasable connection for a steamer or steam iron. In this way either the steamer or the steam iron can be supplied in turn from the same water reservoir. This arrangement has certain disadvantages in that provision of a necessary releasable cable connection at the steamer and at the steam iron makes the steamer and steam iron somewhat physically cumbersome, and the releasable cable connection is at the more vulnerable part of the layout, where maximum flexing and manipulation takes place.